


District Four's Plan

by vipsaniasickle



Category: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen, and tanner is an idiot but i love him too, because i love him & coral, its mizzen's perspective, mizzen doesnt know lamina's name?? i feel like that makes sense tbh, rewrote this scene from a different perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28095246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vipsaniasickle/pseuds/vipsaniasickle
Summary: The Mizzen, Coral, Tanner, and Lamina stunt but rewritten in Mizzen's perspective, with dialogue and details Coriolanus missed or didn't note.
Relationships: Coral & Mizzen
Kudos: 4





	District Four's Plan

**Author's Note:**

> a big kiss to dean for lookin at this before i posted it :*

Mizzen finished the last apple, biting into every bit he could and giving up halfway through the core. Tanner was watching him, so he tossed what was left of it over his shoulder in an exaggerated way, smiling slightly, and getting a smile from Tanner in return. He looked to Coral, but her eyes were trained on the girl in the center of the arena. She was awake, draped in a heavy piece of fabric, which he could tell was the missing fraction of the flag that flew beyond her on the other side of the stadium. Mizzen could see her axe laid on the beam beside her. One girl with one axe, how difficult could this possibly be? Still, his heart was heavy in his chest. 

“Ready?” Coral broke their silence.

The pack of three stood and walked to the edge of the stands. Mizzen was first to scurry down the wall, and Coral handed him the two tridents before descending herself. She led the group to the posts where the girl was perched, and they formed a circle beside the left one. Mizzen focused on the girl again, but she hadn’t noticed them. 

“She’s not paying attention to us,” Mizzen said quietly, trying not to ruin their good fortune. The older two looked up at her as well. Tanner swung his sword against the post three times in succession, causing a clanging that got her to sit up and focus on the group below her. 

Coral and Mizzen met each other’s gaze. Coral was frustrated, but she held her tongue. Mizzen was more appalled at Tanner’s actions than anything else, his eyes wide and mouth agape in shock. Coral looked at their ally, who was still looking at the girl above as she polished her axe with the blanket of fabric, and spoke firmly. 

“It was a _good thing_ that she hadn’t seen us. But whatever.”

Tanner’s attention was back on Coral and Mizzen, and he breathed out a quick “sorry” before opening his left hand for their tridents. 

“Just like we talked about,” Coral handed hers over and headed for the other post.

“Okay,” Mizzen relinquished his as well and pulled the knife from his belt.

Coral reminded Tanner to call to her if Mizzen was falling behind as she drew her own knife. Mizzen placed the dull end of the knife between his teeth and put a hand on the post, waiting until Coral mirrored him to nod his head and begin his climb. He expected it to be easy; it was about as high as the climb to the topsail, and as the youngest and most agile in his family he was the one doing all of the climbing at home. But with the anticipation of what awaited him at the top, his chest was heavy and seemingly weighing him down. This was going to be harder than untangling some ropes. 

He paused for only a moment to tilt his head and glance at Coral’s progress. She was a few feet ahead of him, still moving steadily. He heard Tanner call her off. Mizzen hadn’t known Coral well. At home, he’d seen her occasionally, but they’d never spoken. But a week and some change was plenty of time to get to know someone. He knew she’d worked in the same marina he did, and that she was a very skilled, very experienced sailor and fisherman _(or fisherwoman?)_. Including the fact that she was older, taller, and stronger than he was, it made sense that she was climbing with more speed. 

His train of thought halted when he noticed he was a few yards from the top. The beam itself obscured his view of what was above it, but he could still see the girl, now standing and holding her axe, fully alert. Mizzen continued his climb, eyes on the girl as she shifted, facing him and then Coral and back again a few times before she settled on who to go after. If it was even possible, his heart sank more when the girl advanced to Coral’s end. He disregarded the weight in his chest and put more speed into his climb, reaching the top of the post and gaining the top of the beam. He spared only a moment to watch Coral and the girl. She swung the axe downward, and a bit of golden-red hair scattered in the wind, but Coral was still holding on. She hadn’t been hit. 

He advanced a few steps out and away from the post, and looked down at Tanner, who was prepared to throw Mizzen’s trident to him. He tried to slow his breathing, and bent his knees slightly, ready to make the catch. He saw Tanner throw, and saw the trident peak and fall, a few yards below Mizzen’s reach. He glanced back up at the other end of the beam, where the girl was already facing him and moving in his direction, axe in her hands. Now he was panicking. He debated stepping back a bit and dropping back onto the post, but Tanner was winding up for another toss. He kneeled, eyes darting between his weapon below him and the girl who was approaching, and fast. Tanner’s second throw was better. Mizzen leaned to his right to try to swipe the trident out of the air, but it was too far to the left; it struck the bottom of the beam and fell. Mizzen’s left hand grabbed the knife from between his teeth and he began to stand, ready to pounce at the girl, but she was already swinging. 

The axe smashed into his knee, the force knocking both of his legs out of the way of the beam. His right arm hooked over the metal before he could fall. The sharp, ongoing pain in his right knee overwhelmed him and took his vision. For a second, the world was black, and in the next moment he regained his senses and prepared to address the more pressing threat of falling. His knife was gone, dropped in the fall, so he raised his left arm and supported himself as he readjusted his right hand to wrap around the beam and lace fingers with his left. He waited, hanging, his breathing labored. Someone fell to the left, and the flash of blonde and grey told him this wasn’t his district partner. He leaned his head to the right and caught a glimpse of Coral, who was holding her knife in her left hand and progressing toward him. 

“Mizzen!” It was a breathless, shocked exclamation from Coral as she sat on the beam and grabbed at his hands. They linked their right hands, and she used her left to hold his forearm. With her help, he scrambled to the top of the beam using his left arm and leg exclusively. The pain in his right was white hot, but had finally dulled, and he sat on the beam and scooted his way to the end with Coral following behind him. 

“She hit my right. With the flat part of the axe, though,” Mizzen told Coral, although all of that was probably already obvious to her. 

They reached Mizzen’s post. “Yeah, I don’t see any blood,” she responded, still short of breath, probably from the adrenalin rush that was the whole situation. “Can you make it down?”

He nodded and descended onto the post, moving himself down with his arms wrapped around the post and his left foot against it. Coral lowered herself above him. If the slowness of his descent bothered her, she didn’t let on that it did. At the bottom, Mizzen extended his left leg and pointed his foot down, feeling for the ground before his right leg hit it accidentally. He dropped down and stepped away from the post, leaving room for Coral to drop. 

On the ground, Coral gave him a single, firm nod and jogged to where Mizzen’s trident laid in the dirt. Mizzen returned to the post and leaned against it, giving his right leg a bit of weight to see what his knee could handle. The pain was still present, and it stabbed through his leg every time he pressed into it. He supported himself on his left and turned his attention to Tanner. Mizzen smiled through the pain and anger. He raised his hand. Coral raised the trident behind Tanner as soon as he went for the high-five, and when she struck him, he fell forward. 

With the post supporting him from behind, Mizzen shoved him away, his expression falling flat as he kneeled by Tanner’s shoulders. Coral handed her knife over, and Mizzen cut his throat. He returned the knife and stood against the post again, relieved that the hard work was over. Things were back to the way they should be. Just District Four. Coral jogged back out to the girl’s body, ignoring her weapon to instead grab the piece of flag that had fallen earlier. She tore a strip from it and kneeled in front of Mizzen.

“This won’t help too much, but it’ll be some extra support. Immobilize it as much as possible,” Coral started to wrap the fabric around his knee tightly, loosening her pull a bit when he cried out. The pressure hurt, but the pain subsided. He knew the wrap would keep it from hurting so much when he walked on it, so he let her continue. 

“Don’t cry,” she told him, without even looking up at his face. She was caring, but in a firm, tough-love kind of way. It reminded Mizzen of his older sister. 

“I’m not,” he answered. Coral tucked the end of the fabric into itself and stood. She put a hand on his head, then ruffled his hair. He gave her a half smile, and she gave one in return before going to collect their weapons. Mizzen stared down at Tanner, at the pool of blood that surrounded his head. For a moment he couldn’t look away. Then Coral handed him his knife, which he tucked back into his belt, and they moved toward the tunnel together.


End file.
